Every time someone introduces a new technology I feel just like these guys. These are the current items on my list of technology that I have yet to embrace:
- Internet phones
- Blue-Ray
- iPod and iPod-like devices
- Electric cars
I know many years ago (1998) when the internet was just beginning to be discovered by the everyday guy, I was one of those guys that used the mysterious NEW thing on one of them new fangled computers. So I know how it feels to be on the outside looking in. Today the people who have cellular phones and DON’T text, I liken to the first cavemen who wouldn’t use fire to warm their caves.
I have learned that if you wait long enough the scientist and inventor will dumb down the technology enough that just about anyone can use and understand it. Ham radios are a perfect example. In order to get a First Class Radio License back in the day you had to be able to send and receive Morse Code with reasonable effectiveness. Today most people can’t even tell you what Morse Code is, let alone what a Ham radio is or why you would want one.
A perfect example of a product getting easier and easier to use is the automobile. We have been promised flying cars for nearly 50 years by the auto industry. Can you imagine some of the idiot drivers you see on the road today in a FLYING CAR? I find it ironic that when technology could save the auto industry they aren’t even able to make a fuel efficient vehicle and market it. They have had decades to build “what the consumer” wants. But they instead whored up their industry with the pursuit of the quick buck and produced crap and marketed it to us as the greatest thing since sliced bread. And today they end their begging session testimony before congress to save their industry with a bail-out.
Do I need high-def TV with a Blue-Ray player and optional digital inputs so I can plug in my 900 gig iPod and watch back episodes of Family Guy in my shiny new hybrid 4×4?
The short answer is no.
The long answer is hell yeah, does my neighbor have one? Then I need two, dammit.
Actually what I would like is a simple automobile that
- is priced fairly (in other words one that doesn’t require me to change social classes to afford),
- has cheap parts (at least reasonably priced),
- is easy to repair,
- is economical to operate,
- doesn’t have a more powerful computer than the one I use in my office,
- doesn’t require me to go back to college to operate,
- doesn’t fly.
Here at the dawn of a new era in the auto industry let’s all hope they figure it out and go back to the drawing board and produce something the American consumer will be once again proud to own. Something that was made in the United States by happy workers working at reasonable wages and with a cup holder or two.
If the economy gets as bad as it was in the very funny made for TV movie, Americathon, where we all live in our cars, if you have an SUV or two (like OkieRover) you’ll be the one everyone envies.
Have a good weekend and enjoy the gas prices while they drop.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
